RAID, LVM and ACLs on Ubuntu 8.04

Ubuntu is trying to break into the server market. Indeed as I talk with companies moving to Linux on a weekly basis over 50% of them want to move to Ubuntu as the server of choice. If Ubuntu 8.04 is the server of choice of so many and if Ubuntu wants so desperately to move into the server market then you would expect Ubuntu to have server quality options easily available on the Ubuntu install. What I cannot understand then is why RAID tools are not available, why Logical Volume Management version 2 is not installed and why Access Control Lists for the file system are also not installed on the server. All of these can easily be installed and upgraded but my question is …why not default?

Note: With 8.04.1 some of these issues like LVM2 have been updated, the original install DID NOT have LVM2.

RAID
If you want to create RAID on Ubuntu you will need to install RAID tools before you can do so. Now I am talking about software RAID. You do have access to tools to install RAID during installation but the mdadm program is not installed by default. So if you want to install RAID after the installation you need to add it so you have the tools.

sudo apt-get install mdadm

If you would like to see a tutorial on installing RAID on Ubuntu CLICK HERE.

Install LVM2 on Ubuntu

Ubuntu does not have LVM2 installed by default…why? If Ubuntu wants to move to the server market why not have lvm2 intalled by default like RHEL 5 or CentOS 5? Now it can easily be upgraded with this command:

sudo apt-get install lvm2

If you want to see a tutorial on how to install and configure LVM2 on Ubuntu 8.04 CLICK HERE.

Access Control ListsAccess Control Lists (ACLs) allow you to provide different levels of access to files and folders for different users. The Red Hat Enterprise 5 / CentOS 5 have implemented ACLs in the file system by default. This new feature will allow you to set a file where one user can read, other users cannot read and yet other users are able to read and write to the same file. This was not possible previously.

sudo apt-get install acl
If you would like to see a tutorial on installing and configuring acls CLICK HERE.

Summary:
If Ubuntu really wants to break into the server market, they will need to install by default features that the server market really wants to use, specifically RAID tools, LVM2 and acls. Until they make this transition many will not take them seriously in the server arena.

I really like the CentOS (RHEL) installer in that it lets me set up software RAID and LVM at install time. Filesystem ACLs by default are handy too. I first noticed that they were on by default in CentOS 5.2 although they may have been on in previous versions too.

One decent thing that Ubuntu does that CentOS does not is to turn just about every daemon off by default. With CentOS, I always have to turn off a million things when configuring after the install. Sometimes, I have to scratch my head and wonder why they’d want bluetooth or ISDN on by default.

Ray

July 31, 2008 at 7:39 pm

I recently did a LAMP server install of Ubuntu 8.04.1 server and configured lvm durning the install process. If my memory serves me correctly lvm was an option under the 7.1 install process as well.

Actually, I have to disagree with you here. OpenBSD takes a similar minimalist approach with great success, and on a server, I might not always need or even want those specific features, depending on the server’s intended task. For a big file server, sure, SAN technology like LVM is very handy. But for an NMIS or Nagios server, I don’t need LVM or ACL’s. And for virtually any server that I build or spec out, I use hardware RAID anyway, thus I don’t need or want software RAID.

Remember, those who are building a server need to actually have an idea of what they’re doing. Some basic server admin knowledge must–MUST–be assumed here, kinda like being an electrician or plumber. I don’t consider it unreasonable at all to expect someone to know how to “apt-get install WhateverApp”. Yes, I know, “but Windows installs it by default!” you say. Yeah, right, have fun being 0wn3d by the script kiddies if you go that route. That is a big part of why you’re considering Ubuntu Server instead of Windows Server, isn’t it? :-)

Default installs should be basic. That’s a good point to keeping a server secure.

–TP

anilmvpkd

May 28, 2010 at 2:09 pm

Hi ,
I can’t install mdadm using the command sudo apt-get install mdadm.
it shows message like mdadm package is not available….How can I configure raid10 on ubuntu server 8.04.3?
Thanking U,